Korean media: "China leads South Korea in all fields except semiconductors and football!"

On April 4, Korean media outlet Tomato News published an article stating that recently, Jeon Byung-rye, Director of the Korea-China Economic and Financial Research Institute, said in an interview, "In the past, South Korea excelled in areas such as steel, chemicals, and shipbuilding, but now, aside from semiconductors and football, it is difficult to match China in any other field. China is competing for first or second place globally in artificial intelligence, robotics, and renewable energy."

Regarding China's current technological level, Jeon Byung-rye stated: "China's technology lags behind the United States in certain aspects, while surpassing it in others." He elaborated specifically: in the area of large language models (LLMs), the technical gap between DeepSeek and ChatGPT is only 2 to 3 months; humanoid robots are on par with each other; and China holds a significant lead in renewable energy.

He also highlighted changes in higher education rankings between South Korea and China over the past decade. Previously, China's top five universities ranked lower globally than South Korea's top three universities. Now, however, South Korea's top university ranks below China's top five universities. Of the world’s top ten AI-focused universities, seven are located in China—South Korea has none.

This shift stems from differences in investment scale across universities. Jeon Byung-rye noted: "Tsinghua University’s budget is 7.6 times that of Seoul National University, while Seoul National University’s budget equals that of China’s 51st-ranked university. This transformation was not accidental—it results from consistent policy direction and sustained support."

So what is South Korea’s strategy? Jeon Byung-rye proposes adopting China’s model. He emphasized: "The era of viewing China merely as a market or factory is over. Now, we must regard China as a supplier of raw materials and secure its commitment to stable supply of critical materials like graphite."

He also proposed revitalizing high-value medical tourism targeting the 140 million Chinese outbound travelers, stating: "If we can attract 3.4 million medical tourists, the economic impact would be equivalent to building 10 Hyundai car factories in Gangnam District. We should also implement measures—through policy consistency and unprecedented support for universities—to cultivate talent."

Original source: toutiao.com/article/1861541190739968/

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.